Aircraft autoflight systems have evolved over the years from the traditional autopilots for basic flight path control to complex flight management systems capable of automatically flying aircraft over complicated routes without pilot intervention. Such flight management systems typically include an autopilot, an autothrottle, and a flight management computer (FMC) interfaced with the autopilot and autothrottle. Flight decks on aircraft utilizing such systems generally include a number of controls and displays allowing pilots to monitor the flight management system and change autoflight parameters if desired. As flight management systems have evolved, these controls and displays have been positioned in different locations around the flight deck. Over time, these locations have become somewhat standardized within the transport aircraft industry.
FIG. 1 illustrates a flight deck 100 of an aircraft having a flight management system in accordance with the prior art. The flight deck 100 includes a first pilot seat 102 and a second pilot seat 104 separated by a control pedestal 110. First and second forward windows 108 and 109 are positioned forward of the first and second pilot seats 102 and 104 and provide a forward field of view for first and second pilots (not shown) seated in the first and second pilot seats 102 and 104. A plurality of flight instruments 106 are positioned on a forward instrument panel 111 and the control pedestal 110 for access by the first and second pilots seated in the first and second pilot seats 102 and 104. A glare shield 105 is positioned below the first and second forward windows 108 and 109 to reduce glare on the flight instruments 106.
The flight instruments 106 can include a number of conventional autoflight controls and displays, such as a first control display unit (CDU) 116 positioned on the control pedestal 110 adjacent to the first pilot seat 102, and a second CDU 117 positioned on the control pedestal 110 adjacent to the second pilot seat 104. The first and second CDU's 116 and 117 allow the pilots to make data entries into a flight management computer (FMC) for controlling the flight management system. These entries can include flight plan information such as strategic navigation and flight profile parameters. The flight instruments 106 can also include a first primary flight display (PFD) 114 positioned on the forward instrument panel 111 in front of the first pilot seat 102, and a second PFD 115 positioned on the forward instrument panel 111 in front of the second pilot seat 104. The first and second PFD's 114 and 115 display actual flight parameters of the aircraft, such as airspeed, altitude, attitude and heading. In addition, the first and second PFD's 114 and 115 can also display conventional flight mode annunciators (FMA's). FMA's are textual shorthand codes indicating the current modes of the autothrottle and autopilot. The flight deck 100 can further include a mode control panel (MCP) 112 incorporated into the glare shield 105. The MCP 112 provides control input devices for the FMC, autothrottle, autopilot, flight director, and altitude alert systems.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of portions of the flight deck 100 of FIG. 1 including the MCP 112, the first PFD 114, and the first CDU 116 that illustrates a shortcoming of the prior art flight deck 100. Assume the current autoflight guidance instructions are to climb to a cruise altitude of FL210 at an economy airspeed with an intermediate altitude constraint of FL190 at navigation waypoint “MARZY.” For a pilot (not shown) to ascertain these instructions, the pilot typically first looks at the first PFD 114 on the forward instrument panel 111 to determine an autoflight mode 209 and target airspeed 211. The autoflight mode 209 of “VNAV SPD” indicates the aircraft is climbing “speed-on-elevator.” The target airspeed 211 of “320” indicates the aircraft is climbing at a target airspeed of 320 Kts. The pilot then typically looks at the MCP 112 on the glare shield 105 to determine an altitude 207. The altitude 207 indicates the final cleared altitude is 21,000 ft. (i.e., FL210). Next, the pilot typically looks at the first CDU 116 on the control pedestal 110 to see if there is any intermediate altitude constraint 213 or additional airspeed information 218. In this example, the intermediate altitude constraint 213 indicates a constraint at FL190 at navigation waypoint MARZY. The additional airspeed information 218 indicates that 320 Kts represents an “economy” airspeed with a transition to Mach 0.98 if the climb were sustained. As the foregoing example illustrates, the configuration of the prior art flight deck 100 encourages the pilot to look in three different locations to determine the current autoflight guidance instructions.